A Modern Measurement System for Characterizing Troposcatter Communications Channels

Tropospheric scatter, or troposcatter, communications has been around for a long time but lost interest once satellite communications (SATCOM) began. In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in troposcatter communications for beyond line-of-sight (BLOS) military applications. The unique attributes of troposcatter communications place challenging demands on the measurement system compared to traditional wideband systems. This paper describes a wideband channel sounder measurement system designed to characterize troposcatter channels over a long duration measurement campaign. The system automatically processes channel measurements in real-time and utilizes real-time open-source visualization software.